Spring Forward

Are you excited to be los­ing an hour of sleep?

Although los­ing an hour of sleep may not be wel­comed, a 1976 study con­ducted by the US Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (DOT) found that by spring­ing for­ward we actu­ally save 1% on energy costs. The National Bureau of Stan­dards reviewed the DOT study and found no sig­nif­i­cant sav­ings. In the end does it mat­ter? We still have to set our clocks an hour ahead before we go to bed if we want to be on time today.

Is Spring Clean­ing in your future?

It’s that time of year again where we clean our homes from top to bot­tom, which tra­di­tion­ally occurs on the first warm days of the year — typ­i­cally spring. I don’t know about you, but I barely have time to do light clean­ing let alone clean­ing my home from top to bot­tom. So I asked my good friend, Veron­ica Corona, CEO of CM Clean­ing Solu­tions, Inc, for advice on clean­ing when you have a tight schedule.

Pace your­self: Most homes will not be cleaned in one after­noon. A truly deep clean will take 2–6 hours per area.

Make it fun and mem­o­rable: Fun, upbeat music and a healthy dose of utter silli­ness go a long way to keep­ing you ener­gized and on task. To engage kids, try dec­o­rat­ing broom han­dles with stream­ers, don spe­cial party hats, use funny voices, or tell silly sto­ries as you work. Or throw a clean­ing party with a spe­cial meal to cel­e­brate when you’re done. Don’t for­get to open win­dows and doors if the weather is nice. You’ll not only air your home out, but you’ll also increase your own fresh air intake, which will increase your energy and mood.

Cre­ate your own check­list:(or you can down­load this one) The best way to do this is to break down your areas to clean into sec­tions (mas­ter bed­room, bath­room, closet, kitchen, pantry, etc). Then break down each sec­tion into indi­vid­ual tasks that need accom­plish­ing in each room (dust fans, clean win­dows, wash sheets, etc). Once you have a check­list, esti­mate how much time it will take you to accom­plish each task. Then as you work on each task, write down the actual time it took you to fin­ish the task. This will help you to esti­mate the same tasks in other rooms and adjust your sched­ule accordingly.

CM Clean­ing Solu­tions, Inc. pro­vides jan­i­to­r­ial ser­vices for com­mer­cial and med­ical office build­ings and retail cen­ters in the coun­ties of Los Ange­les, Orange and the Inland Empire. You can reach them at 310– 933‑1735.

Here are a few things you should also do.…

1. Check and replace the bat­ter­ies in your smoke and car­bon monox­ide alarms.

2. Go through your dis­as­ter sup­ply kit. Make sure you have plenty of food, water, bat­ter­ies and blan­kets. If you don’t have a dis­as­ter sup­ply kit, now is the per­fect time to start one.

3. Check and dis­card expired medications.

Don’t get too use to Day­light Sav­ings Time, we fall back on Novem­ber 3, 2013.

Happy Spring,

Eti­quette Con­sult­ing Inc

310–425-3160

You have less than 30 sec­onds to cre­ate a first impres­sion… what does yours say about you?